Alcoholics' Brains Recover Quickly After Detox

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Alcohol abuse can literally shrink the brain, but recovery begins
soon after alcoholics sober up, according to new research.

Within 14 days of detoxification, the brain bounces back,
replacing much of the volume
lost to alcohol, said study researcher Gabriele Ende, a
professor of medical physics at the Central Institute of Mental
Health in Germany. The cerebellum, the region of the brain
devoted to movement and fine motor skills, is among the fastest
to respond, Ende added.

"We found evidence for a rather rapid recovery of the brain from
alcohol-induced volume loss within the initial 14 days of
abstinence," she said in a statement. "Although
brain shrinkage as well as a partial recovery with continued
abstinence have been elaborately described in previous studies,
no previous study has looked at the brain immediately at the
onset of alcohol withdrawal and short-term recovery."

The loss of brain tissue in alcoholics already had been linked to
problems including memory loss, difficulty concentrating and
impulsive behavior, Ende said. To find out whether such losses
could be reversed, she and her colleagues used magnetic resonance
imaging in an inpatient treatment facility to scan the brains of
49 alcoholics within the first 24 hours of detox and again two
weeks later.

The researchers then compared those brain images with MRI scans
from 55 other individuals of the same age and genders as the
alcoholic patients. [ 10
Intoxicating Beer Facts ]

Different brain regions were found to recover at different paces.
The cerebellum, for example, was back to normal two weeks after
detox. Brain areas involved in more-complex thinking get back
online slower; they didn't show full recovery at the two-week
mark.

"It is striking that there is an obvious improvement of motor
skills soon after cessation of drinking, which is paralleled by
our observation of a rapid volume recovery of the cerebellum,"
Ende said. "Higher cognitive functions like divided attention,
which are processed in specific cortical areas, take a longer
time to recover, and this seems to be mirrored in the observed
slower recovery of brain volumes of these areas."

Some brain cells are irreversibly lost from alcohol abuse,
according to study researcher Natalie May Zahr of the Stanford
University School of Medicine.But alcohol also shrinks the volume
of brain matter, a process that can be reversed with sobriety.

The researchers will report their results in January in the
journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. The
findings should be encouraging for recovering alcoholics, said
Zahr, a researcher in psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

"This study offers recovering alcoholics a sense of hope ― hope
that even within two weeks of abstinence, the recovering
individual should be able to observe improvements in brain
functioning that may allow for better insight and thus ability to
remain sober," Zahr said in a statement. "Indeed, a minimal of
brain healing may be necessary before the addict is able to
achieve the control necessary to maintain continued abstinence."